Claudia Ricciardi

I am a partner here at Bird & Bird, where my work is centred on intellectual property. My main focus is on non-contentious activity and on negotiation, draft and review of IP-related contracts in the life sciences and retail & consumer sectors.

In the life sciences & healthcare sector, I assist Italian and international companies and research institutes on the drafting and negotiation of patent/know how licence agreements and patent/know how assignment agreements, collaborative research agreements, sponsored research agreements and regulations of co-ownership of IP rights, as well as material transfer agreements and non-disclosure agreements. I also advise clients with reference to the management of the relationship with employees who are authors of certain inventions. In the last year I have developed a considerable synergy with the corporate department of the firm, offering to clients (both VCs and start-ups) multi-disciplinary support and assistance to meet clients' needs.

On the retail & consumer side, I have a considerable expertise in franchising agreements and management of the relationships of the clients with their franchisees. I also deal with the draft and negotiation of trade mark licence, trade mark assignment and co-existence agreements, as well as of sponsorship agreements. Additionally, I assist clients dealing with issues involving compliance with Consumer Protection Law.

I am a native Italian speaker and am fluent in English. I contributed to the opening of the Italian office in 2003.

• Establishment of a joint venture between a major Italian pharma company and a small Italian biotech company focused on the discovery of novel molecules for application as human vaccines.
• Assisting a major French VC focused on life sciences in the establishment of an accelerator in Italy; the assistance included the design of the business model.
• Drafting the franchising agreements for a leading company in the tyre market.
• Establishment of a contractual joint venture between a major Italian hospital and a well known charity for the collaboration of research related to rare diseases.
• Assisting primary research institutes in the negotiation and execution of collaborative research agreements with foreign pharmaceutical companies.
• Drafting the IP and spin-off internal regulation for a primary Italian hospital.